Knowledge Versus Power - Essay Example

Knowledge Vs Power Knowledge and human power are synonymous, since the ignorance of the cause frustrates the effect. -------------- Francis Bacon The above lines have been quotes from Aphorism III of the great philosopher Francis Bacon. We find more than one instance in his writing where he stresses on the importance of knowledge with respect to the human life. In his famous Latin work “Treatise--De Hoeresiis”, Bacon points out that “Knowledge too, is itself a power.” There have been other authors who have also tried to point out the same thing in different contexts. When we think about knowledge, the first component that comes to our mind is information. When we ask the question, “what does a man with knowledge have?” the simplest and shortest answer we have is “information”. A person with more possession of information or data is therefore at a more advantageous position with respect to the other. If a child thinks with a straight and simple mind a knowledgeable person first reminds him of his teacher. Off course when we first attended school it was the teacher who had taken control over the entire classroom and we always listened to what he said and looked up to him for guidance. The only reason that we give the teacher so much importance is that we need to learn from him and knows much more than we do. In a classroom, therefore, the teacher is the most powerful. However the teacher is liable to the principle of the school and this person has more power than the teacher. Well, immediately we may ask, “does the principle know more than the teacher?” that would be a difficult question to answer if it concerns a particular subject in which the teacher has specialized. However, in terms of the rules and functioning of the school, as well as administration skill, the principle lies at an advantageous position. The famous English author of “Guardian”, Joseph Addison says, “Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another”. From the previous example, it is clear that possession of knowledge raises the bar of one person with respect to another. Off course it does not mean the physical raising of a person with respect to the other’s position. It is the intellectual upliftment or the increase in dominance and positional advantage. In a single word, we may say that knowledge raises the power of a man compared to the others. The association of power and knowledge is most of the times restricted to the territorial boundary. This is perhaps because, we cannot single out one person who is the most knowledgeable in every field and similarly we cannot select a single person who has utmost power over every other human being in the world. When we consider the territorial limits of the school, the teacher is most powerful even with respect to the parents of the children. However that does not mean that none of the parents or guardians possesses better knowledge than the class teacher. Off course there can be a certain father who has an even higher qualification in history than the history teacher of his son’s class. Yet, he is bound to give due respect to the teacher and listen to the sound advices when he collects the report card of his son carrying poor marks in the same subject. Positional advantage would play a stronger role than knowledge. However, we may look at it in another way. The teacher has better knowledge with respect to training the children in a school and hence the father of the child has to acknowledge that fact and listen to her complaints against his child. From the immediately previous case, we may perceive knowledge as skill instead of information. Virtue and skill can also be components of knowledge but all would initiate from information. A certain young lady might be known as a very skillful dancer but first she needs to master the skills or techniques of the dance. How well she picks it up and masters it would build up her skill and if she does it better than her peers, she has an advantage and we might as well call her the most powerful dancer in her class. However do we realize than a man is powerful? We realize this when he gets a lot of importance and attention besides being respected by the surrounding people. We might find people flocking to him for advice (in case of a scholar) or rushing to him with gifts and bribes in order to please him (the case of a potential employee trying to appease the employer). The first case is directly that of knowledge possession while the second one pertains more towards a positional advantage. Indirectly knowledge would play a role because the employer is more aware of the ways and rules of the organization. Thinking of the industrial scenario, a firm with better information will surely be at a better position with respect to the competitors in the industry. Merging and acquisitions become a wise and easy undertaking when a firm has better and more information or knowledge with respect to the other firms. Grabbing any opportunity related to business also requires the right information at the right time. The stock market is another brilliant instance of the role played by knowledge. However, is we talk of power, there is another component besides knowledge that might beget power even if the person lacks in some areas of knowledge. These are luck and risk aversion. A risk-averse person would prefer to stay away from investments, which might not give a good signal of certainty. However if some one can master up the courage to plunge into the risk, with bliss of luck he might simply become richer than the other risk averse person though the later might be far ahead in terms of stock market knowledge possession. The above context can be explained in the following manner to incorporate the role played by knowledge. Although the risk loving person will win but this is a more a matter of fluke and in a market where luck already has a predominant role to play, such risky moves might prove to be careless and cost quite a large toll. The wiser person with more knowledge would be more secured about his future in the market than the risk loving person led by destiny. Thus knowledge makes a person wise and wisdom is also associated with the concept of knowledge. When we think about Gautam Buddha and Mahavira, we find them as personalities who had a very fine quality and a high level of knowledge and wisdom pertaining to the spiritual aspect of life and thus they won their long and everlasting chain f followers. Knowledge is not just about possession, it is also the way we preach it that matters and gains power for ourselves. The teachings of Gautam Buddha and Mahavira have stood the test of time and hence won the trust of his followers. Thus, mere possession of knowledge without recognition is fruitless in terms of gaining power. It is important to make the world realize about the knowledge or information we possess if we want to gain the power. The trick here is that the knowledge possessed should be never-ending or must be handled and delivered carefully, without letting out everything in one go. This might led to the loss of power, as the others would hardly have a reason to flock to the knower or give him the importance anymore. This is mostly applicable in case of intellectual copyright laws where the loss of copyright might lead to an organization losing out its importance and positional advantage in the market. Now, just like knowledge begets power, power usually increases the greed of the human mind and soul. Power is tempting and this gives rise to greed for more power. Even a wise man might divert from his spiritual route and try to use crooked means in order to achieve power quickly. Even the idea of growing powerful increases the greed and a person might lose his rationality I the process. It need not only be the power hungry politicians whom we tend to blame but also a certain member in a household might try to become more powerful and gain control over the family enterprise. This happens when the person has already gained sufficient insights into the organization especially the financial records. In the spree of wishing for a larger share in the family business he might adopt wrong means to cheat his competitor (could be his brother or uncle) and become the controller. This love for control and dominance over the rest of the people in the surroundings often leads the person to his downfall. The seed of evil is often planted in the human mind due to the urge to become more and more powerful. We need not forget the evil strategician Adolph Hitler whose rush to gain power destroyed the Jews in a way that put humanity to shame. The bloody deed undertaken by Hitler is often said to have been roused by some devil that controlled his mind. However, this devil or the seed of evil was born only due to the urge and hurry to conquer the whole of Europe and become as powerful as possible. This evil hunger for power finally lead o the crisis in Hitler’s career when he invaded Russia and lost a large part of his army. In today’s businesses we often find the business partners cheating one another and even bluffing the clients. All these have the source in evil power of the human mind and this seed of evil has been formed as one seeks for more and more power. Off course the scenario of the industries have improved a lot at the onset of globalization and we say the rise of the powerful Microsoft and the Tata. Yet as history has proved, the gain of power makes one greedy and this greed gives birth to evil ways. Competition among the firms has led them to devise shortcuts to reach the top and this route if often marked with the dark clouds of dishonesty, politics and corruption. Power has also influenced another particular energy in a man’s life and that is lust. Lust is hardly used to gain pleasure in the privacy of one’s bedroom but this is a means to commoditize the fair sex with the help of power. The corporate game of gaining power often uses lust to cheat and overrule the potential competitors. A powerful person evidently has greater control over the body and life of a woman and is more courageous than the others in the way of satisfying his lust. Similar might be the case with a woman as well. Here again, a woman often finds a successful man more sensuous than an average person. Money and power, both influence this aspect. An actress might prefer to lie with the producer and not the actor no matter how handsome the later is. Thus, the urges of securing more control over others and dominance in a certain field might rush a person to use lust to reach his goal. The story Dr. Faustus reveals the battle between the good angel and the bad angel or the good and evil in man’s life. Faustus wanted power and control and can go to any extent in the bargain. Taking this opportunity the blood-sucking devil, Mephistopheles appears and creates confusion I his soul. This devil was chased out of heaven and now he wants to take Faustus’ soul along with him. While Faustus wants power, Mephistopheles desires his soul for a company. The two of them enter a trade deal and Faustus has to sign the dotted line in order to become the eighth sin of the hell. The good angle appears to advice him to read the bible and not the magic book and also suggests that he should repent instead of entering the deal. However the evil force appears, disgraced at the name of Christ and gives him the taste of hell in the pure form. Faustus finally ends up signing the deal and hence ends everything by becoming forever damned. The story of Dr. Faustus reveals that temptation and greed for power can prove deadly to anyone. In today’s world the politicians play the dirty game of power on one hand while the large business houses uses their present power in order to gain more power. Thus one needs to listen to the conscience instead of always being driven by the material pull. It is very important to stay in close connection with the soul such that the evil seed of greed and power hunger may not overpower it. Sometimes people opt for the dark road due to he glitter despite being aware of the wrong deeds. However the glitter soon fades to show the reality and the stark face of downfall and destruction. Thus, as we saw, knowledge influences power, the negative aspects of greed, evil and lust are influenced by the game of power and control. At this juncture, it is entirely up to an individual whether he wants to stick close to his conscience and avoid the dirty power game or he would rather go for the temporary glitter instead of the eternal bliss. References: Bacon, Francis. The New Organon, Aphorisms, http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/bacon/francis/organon/chapter1.html Foucault, Michel, The History of Sexuality, vol. 1, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1981 (see pp. 92-102) Flyvbjerg, Bent. Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998 Haas, Ernst B. When Knowledge is Power: Three Models of Change in International Organizations. University of California, 1990 Higdon, Lee. "Knowledge is power." University Business, September 2005. "Knowledge is power (But only if you know how to acquire it)." The Economist, May 8, 2003 Marlow, Christopher The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus, New York: bartleby.com, 2001, from: http://www.bartleby.com/19/2/ Read More